585 



ANSER. GOOSE. 



The Geese, properly so called, are birds of large size, 

 having the body remarkably full, ovate, rather higher than 

 broad ; the neck long and slender ; the head rather small in 

 proportion to the general size, arched above, oblong, and 

 compressed. 



Bill as long as the head or considerably shorter, stout, 

 straight, sub-conical, of much greater height than breadth at 

 the base, narrowed toward the end, where it is somewhat 

 depressed and broadly rounded ; upper mandible with the 

 lateral and superior basal margins semicircular, forming two 

 short, moderately pointed angles ; the ridge broad and flat- 

 tened at the base, gradually narrowed and convex ; the 

 dorsal line decimate and straight to near the unguis, which is 

 round, very convex, decurved, and strong, with a firm edge, 

 the sides sloping and convex, the nasal space oblong from 

 near the base to the middle, covered by the soft membrane 

 of the bill; the edges soft, arcuate, denticulate with the 

 triangular projecting outer ends of the oblique lamella?; 

 lower mandible with the intercrural space long, rather wide, 

 its membrane anteriorly bare, the short dorsal line convex, 

 the crura long, rather narrow, their lower outline somewhat 

 re-arcuate, their sides sloping outwards and convex ; the 

 edges elevated, inclinate, denticulate with the short outer 

 extremities of the numerous oblique lamellae ; the unguis 

 roundish and moderately convex; the gape-line arcuate, 

 commencing under the upper basal angle of the mandible. 



Mouth of moderate width. Anterior palate concave, 

 with a lateral series of flattened papillae on each side, sepa- 

 rated by a groove from the marginal lamellae, a medial row 

 of prominent tubercles, and on each side of it one or two 



